The prior art discloses a variety of different fastening devices for use in affixing a boat cover or canopy across various open spaces on a boat. Many designs utilize a snap lock system comprised of a male fastening stud attached to the boat surface and a female receiving snap attached to a boat cover.
Snap studs are commonly attached permanently to a boat railing which extends around the exterior body of the boat and sometimes across the top or sides of a windshield portion. In manufacture, this process of permanently attaching snap studs measured distances between each other along the boat rails requires considerable time and expense. Furthermore, difficulties occur when the canvas material or canopy material used to cover the open spaces of the boat change in dimension due to stretching or shrinkage by continued weathering or use, or when the cover is produced with widely varying dimensioned quality standards. These changes in dimension of the boat covers make it difficult to fasten the female receiving snap onto the studs which are not adjustable along the boat rails. It then becomes necessary to either remove the old studs and reposition them to better correspond with the new positions of the female receiving snaps or simply skipping the fastener, i.e. not securing the cover at that particular location.
Various attempts to overcome these difficulties are known in the art. One such technique includes fastening the snap stud to a detachable clip and attaching that clip to the boat railing. This technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,961,725 to McGee wherein a metal or standard injection molded plastic clip is formed with a integral male snap stud member attached on one portion of the clip for use in cover attachment to the boat windshields.
A similar technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,367,349 to O'Link wherein a metal bracket is comprised of a flat web portion and an inwardly turned flange portion which is adapted to seat and travel along a groove contained within a boat rail. See also U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,913 to Siebert et al.
Many of the fastening devices existing in the prior art cooperate only with a boat railing or windshield railing that contain specially configured grooves that extend along the length of the railing. These grooves were generally included in the fastening system to facilitate a better gripping or fastening force between the boat clip device and the rail itself. The gripping force created by these prior art devices often necessitated providing a release latch or extending portion specifically for use in removing the boat clip from the boat railing.